Dorking · in person in Hove or online
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Dorking
Looking up rehab in Dorking usually means something has reached a point, for you or for someone close to you. Rehab and detox are arranged through the free route Surrey provides. I'm a counsellor who knows recovery from the inside, working one to one by secure video or in Hove around that route.
The practical facts for Dorking
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Dorking by car
- About 54 minutes with clear roads (38.1 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Dorking Deepdene, change at Gatwick Airport for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- i-access, 0300 222 5932
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
When drinking blends into a pleasant town
Dorking has its own vineyard at Denbies Wine Estate and a visitor economy built on good days out, so a glass of wine can feel like part of the scenery.
That makes it easy for a habit to hide. It can look like a bottle shared after a walk on Leith Hill that slowly becomes a bottle each, every night. It can be cans on the slow train back from Victoria, cocaine that began as a way to keep pace with a job, or bets placed on a phone between meetings. Hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions in Mole Valley ran at 356.7 per 100,000 in 2023/24, lower than the England rate of 611.7 per 100,000 that year. It is a rate for the whole district and tells you nothing about one household. The person reading this may well be a partner in Brockham doing the sums, or a parent whose grown-up son has moved back home, and not the one drinking at all.
i-access first, with counselling around it
Across Surrey, the free route into treatment is i-access, run by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust with the non-profit Via, on 0300 222 5932. Their team assesses what a person needs and, where it's safe and necessary, organises medically supported detox, community treatment or a residential place. My work runs around it. Counselling can start while someone is still deciding whether to ring, carry on through an assessment and treatment, or pick up when a residential stay ends and ordinary life in Dorking has to be lived without the old prop. We look at what the drink, drugs or betting has been for: easing the long ride home, numbing a grief, quietening a mind that won't stop, or simply filling the evening. Then we look, without hurry, at what might take its place. Whether you're still drinking, using or betting, and whether or not you've made up your mind about it, we can start talking now. I've been through recovery myself, which makes me hard to shock and uninterested in lecturing. If you're the partner, parent or grown-up child, you can come for yourself. Together we can sort out which parts of this are yours to carry, how to say what you've noticed without a row, and how to keep your own life going.
Four people this page is written for
A partner doing the sums
Watching the bank statements and the recycling, making excuses to friends. i-access has information and carers support for family members, and our sessions can be entirely for you.
Parent of a teenager or student
Your child's drinking or drug use is hard to ignore. Heads Together Counselling in Dorking offers free general counselling for ages 11 to 24. For a child still at school, ask your GP or i-access who to contact.
Not ready to ring i-access
You can talk it through first: what's been happening, what frightens you about asking for help, and what you'd like to know before speaking to them.
The first months after rehab
Back in Dorking with the same friends and the same train home. Regular sessions give you somewhere to bring the hard evenings as they come.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free drug and alcohol support for Dorking
i-access is the place to ask about detox or rehab, and its information and carers support exists for the family side of things. Action for Carers Surrey helps if worrying about someone's drinking or drug use has quietly turned you into their carer. Mary Frances Trust's Community Connections groups in Mole Valley offer company and structure, which can matter in early recovery. None of this stops you having private sessions as well.
- Free drug and alcohol servicei-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationi-access information and carers support for family and carers
FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free and confidential, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online. For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
If raising someone's drinking or drug use with them feels unsafe, or someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247. In immediate danger, call 999.
Detox and residential rehab are arranged through the free local drug and alcohol service named here. It assesses what you need, arranges medically assisted withdrawal where that is safe and needed, and can refer for community or residential treatment. My part is one-to-one counselling before, alongside or after that treatment, to help the changes last.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT Mental Health Crisis Helpline is on 0800 915 4644.
If you, or someone you live with, drink heavily every day, or take drugs such as benzodiazepines or GHB daily, do not stop suddenly without medical advice. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Your GP or the local drug and alcohol service can arrange medically assisted withdrawal. Call 999 or go to A&E if someone in withdrawal is shaking visibly, unusually restless or agitated, confused, seeing or hearing things that are not there, or has a fit. For milder symptoms, such as a slight tremor or sweating, contact your GP or NHS 111 the same day (NHS guidance). Counselling works alongside medical support, not instead of it.
What people in Dorking ask before starting
Is there a rehab I can go to in Dorking?
There's no rehab I know of in Dorking itself; for anyone living in the town, detox and residential places are reached through an assessment with i-access, Surrey's free drug and alcohol service, on 0300 222 5932. Sessions with me can fit whichever stage you've reached, from before that first assessment to the months after coming home.
My adult son has moved back to Dorking and is using drugs. What can I do?
No one can make an adult son stop, but you can change your own part in it. Tell him calmly what you've noticed, make sure he knows i-access exists, and get support for yourself, through their information and carers support or through sessions with me. If he uses heavily every day, his GP or i-access should be involved before he stops, and the safety note on this page explains why.
Can I have addiction counselling in person from Dorking, or only online?
Either. The room in Hove is roughly 54 minutes away by car, near enough for regular visits if you have the time, and being well away from Dorking can make it easier to speak freely. Video is there for the weeks when the trip is too much, and you can move between the two as things change.
Can I start counselling while I wait for i-access to see me?
Yes. You don't need a referral or a place on their list first. Book the free call, tell me roughly what's happening, and I'll give you a realistic idea of when we could begin. One caution: if alcohol is a heavy, daily part of your life, involve your GP or i-access before stopping, since sudden withdrawal can be dangerous.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
Make the first call, whoever it is about
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.